making special collections.

Where possible to do so avoid buying large bills of books at long
intervals. It is better to spend an income of $600 per year in monthly
installments of $50, than it is to buy twice a year $300 lots.

The frequent purchase will bring you the new and talked of books while
they are fresh in the minds of people, and there is greater economy of
time in cataloging and shelving them.

Second-hand books are rarely cheap at any price.

Have confidence in your agent, for your interests are always his.

CHAPTER XVII

Ink and handwriting

For catalog cards and all other records use a non-copying black,
permanent ink. Carter's record ink is good. It has been adopted, after
careful investigation, by the state of Massachusetts for all official
records. The New York state library school, at Albany, has issued a
little handbook on "library handwriting," which recommends Carter's
record, and says they use Stafford's blue writing ink for blue and his
carmine combined for red.

For all labels on the outside of books, and for all writing on
surfaces which may be much handled, use Higgins' American drawing ink,
waterproof.

The vertical hand should be used in all library work. The following
rules, with the illustrations, are taken from the Albany school
handbook above referred to:

Brief rules

1 Ink. Use only standard library ink and let it dry without blotting.

2 Position. Sit squarely at the desk and as nearly erect as possible.

3 Alphabets. Follow the library hand forms of all letters, avoiding
any ornament, flourish, or lines not essential to the letter.

4 Size. Small letters, taking m as the unit, are one space or two
millimeters high; i.e. one-third the distance between the rulings of
the standard catalog card.

Capitals and extended letters are two spaces high above the base line
or run one space below, except t, the character &, and figures, which
are one and one-half spaces high.

5 Slant. Make letters upright with as little slant as possible, and
uniformly the same, preferring a trifle backward rather than forward
slant.

6 Spacing. Separate words by space of one m and sentences by two m's.
Leave uniform space between letters of a word.

7 Shading. Make a uniform black line with no shading. Avoid hair line
strokes.

8 Uniformity. Take great pains to have all writing uniform in size,
slant, spacing, blackness of lines and forms of letters.

9 Special letters and f